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Sunday drive – The road less traveled: Ceres and Surrounds, Western Cape

July 3, 2018

If you know me at all, you know that I love winter. And a good Sunday drive. Winter is also my favourite season, maybe because I was born in winter? The cold, rainy days; warming up next to the fire; snuggling in a fluffy blanket with a good book, series or (more often than not) Instagram or Pinterest… that is my idea of a perfect day. The only thing that would top that would be snow in my back yard! Since it doesn’t snow in my area, so we have to go on a 2 hour drive and hope to find some. Which means I get a good Sunday drive thrown in as well!

When Hubs heard the weather report on Friday night, all DIY plans that I had for the weekend were tossed (hence no DIY blog post this week – Oops!).

They were forecasting snow for Sunday and Monday and we were going to see if we would be lucky enough to catch some of it. So the route was planned, the picnics were packed and, at 7:00 am on a rainy Sunday morning, we set off.

We took the N1 to Worcestor and decided to ditch the tunnel in favour of our first pass of the day – Du Toitskloof. It was pitch dark and raining, so we couldn’t see any of the views; it was probably a bit of a waste hahaha.

Now, what’s a road trip without a coffee? Our first stop of the day was a Vida E Caffe in Worcestor – nothing like a hot cup of coffee on a very chilly winter’s morning.

Our first pitstop of the day – coffee!

From there, we carried on up the N1, over the Hex River pass, to just before Touwsriver, where we turned off onto the R46 . It had cleared up a bit, although we could see clouds shrouding all the mountain peaks, hiding all the magic that we hoped that they were making!

We then turned onto our first dirt (um, mud!) road of the day – the Boswaarmoed pass. We drive this road at least once a year, if not more (depending on how long the snow season lasts); I think that it’s so pretty, passing through the farmlands bordered in parts by an old stone wall. If you are lucky enough to catch it when it’s snowing it’s, well, magical!

I love this part of the road, that stone wall is so beautiful.

By this time we were starting to get hungry and had also resigned ourselves to the fact that the snow would probably only hit overnight, so we decided to stop on the side of the road to make our breakfast. Being campers and having our Landy set up with a mini-kitchen comes in really handy sometimes!

Bacon and eggs in the making – Yum!

The guys made us bacon and scrambled egg sandwiches right there on the side of the road, along with hot coffee/tea/hot chocolate to warm us up. It was freezing, but I think that that added to the adventure. I swear that those were the best bacon and egg sandwiches that I had ever eaten!

The best bacon and egg sandwich ever! I think that the cold, fresh air might have had something to do with it!

We also used this opportunity to let the kids get rid of some of their energy!

Can’t forget to pack the toys – there is always somewhere to play, Mom!And then of course there is always time for selfies!

From there we packed up and went back to the R46, and on to the R355. This is another gravel road which takes you through the Tankwa Karoo to Calvina if you’re feeling up for a longer drive. We made a very necessary pitstop at the Tankwa Karoo Padstal (Farmstall), where, to their delight, the kids found a playground. It felt like we were in the middle of a sandstorm, but they just had to play!

The kids had a ball at the playground in the middle of nowhere!The Tankwa Karoo – a different type of beauty!

From here, we went back about 3km and then took the Peerboomskloof Pass, which I had never been on before. It was so beautiful, meandering through the mountains.

My daughter enjoying the view during a pitstop on the Peerboomskloof Pass

The Peerboomskloof Pass takes you straight to the next pass, Katbakkies Pass and through to to Op-Die-Berg (R303).

We found the rain (and muddy puddles) again along the Katbakkies Pass

The rain really started to come down here and I might have taken a nap. Maybe. Okay, so definitely! This means that I have no photos from this part of the trip and is one of the reasons that I am not a full time travel blogger hahaha. I can tell you that we continued on the R303, over the Gydo Pass, and back to Ceres. From Ceres, we took the R46 over Mitchell’s Pass.

We turned off onto the R43 back to Worcestor, where we stopped at the Witteberg Inn for a late lunch (or, in Hubs and my case – dessert). I just love this cute little Inn, we usually make a stop here when we are in the area.

Such a cute inn, we love it!

Once we were done and warmed up, we proceeded to make our way home. We wanted to take the Slanghoek road, but, for some reason we couldn’t…

The Breede River in full flow – no way we getting over here!

We had to drive back towards Rawsonville to get over the river and back to the N1. The amount of waterfalls flowing through and down the mountains in the area were staggering. After the most horrible drought in history, seeing all this water and our rivers in full flood was breathtaking. We are so thankful for all of this rain (and snow, that did, in fact, arrive overnight) – we are desperate for all of it. Our dams are still a long way from full – so local peeps, keep up with your water saving practices!

Not the best photo, but what a beautiful sight! I lost count of the amount of waterfalls that we saw!

Because Hubs felt that he hadn’t driven enough passes for the day, he decided to take Du Toitskloof pass again, instead of the tunnel. This is clearly his version of fun! If I’ve counted right, we did a total of 8 mountain passes in one day!

Thanks for travelling along with me through this post, even though we didn’t find snow. Also, I didn’t mean to publish 2 back to back ‘out and about’ posts (I posted our Marcuskraal adventure last week), but that is just how life is going at the moment – nothing is going according to plan. My regularly scheduled DIY posts will be back soon!

In the meantime, please let me know what you think. Do you enjoy these posts? Do you prefer when I stick to DIY and home decor? Talk to me, I’m here for you!

[…] our country. We love to try out a new 4×4 course; it’s a family tradition to have picnics on the side of the road; I love to park by the beach on a cold and blustery day and watch the waves crash over the rocks […]

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Hello and welcome !

It’s great to meet you! I’m Stacy, a DIY, home decor and lifestyle blogger hailing from Cape Town, South Africa. I love to share my tips, tricks and lessons learned, so grab a cup of your favourite beverage and let’s hang out 🙂